The only area in which we really fall down is that we do not have enough apprenticeships, and we certainly do not promote the ones we do have. We could do this in schools and colleges to show that there is another way other than higher education.
Like me, not everyone wants to go down that route but they have the drive and personality to make a difference to customers' lives.
I have seen an increasing number of smaller, local mortgage and protection businesses recruiting for school leavers to help with administrative duties, who then go on to becoming paraplanners and, eventually, protection advisers.
Protection advice can help organic growth
There has been a lot of change with insurers over the years, especially with technology playing a bigger part in processing, but there are still roles being advertised for administrative work as well as customer service roles.
This, again, can help build an understanding of the industry.
What it also allows new starters to do is learn about different areas such as claims or underwriting, and they may find that being a protection adviser is not their end goal any longer, but they will be contributing to the industry and creating better customer outcomes.
For me, some of the biggest success stories of getting younger and new people into the protection industry are from the businesses that are looking to grow organically and use a referral system for family and friends.
Sharing the details of a friend who has the right drive and attitude to become a protection adviser goes a lot further than trawling through CVs to find the right candidates before having to sit through hours on potentially pointless interviews.
A friend or family member already comes with an endorsement, plus the added benefit that they are being trusted to do a good job should they be successful. This helps create a culture of community and promotes loyalty to the business.
By creating a more diverse work force, we will start to raise the profile of protection. We will begin to filter through to demographics and communities that we may not have been able to in the past by sticking to traditional methods of obtaining advice and this can only be a good thing.
It will give us the chance to create new business opportunities but, more importantly, it could give us insight into how we can reach more people.
Benefiting customers, benefiting your business
The more that advisers talk about protection and how it can benefit customers, the more mainstream it becomes. The more mainstream it becomes, the more people will start to understand how to access these policies and all their wonderful features.
